1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric shaver.
2. Prior Art
One example of a conventional electric shaver of a vibration type has a shaving head that pivots between a pair of supporting elements installed in the shaver's main-body housing. The shaving head has inner and outer blades, and the inner blade vibrates to slide along the undersurface of the outer blade to cut the hair.
Such an electric shaver is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 62-227395. In this electric shaver, the axial line of the pivotal shaving head lies on the axis of the outer blade; and the outer blade is not movable in a vertical direction so that the apex of the outer blade is kept in contact with the skin when the shaver is used.
In this shaver, since the outer blade is positioned on the axial line of the pivotal shaft of the shaving head, and the shaving surface of the outer blade is not designed to move up and down relative to the axial line of the pivotal shaft, the shaving head is not movable into and away from the housing of the shaver. As a result, the shaving head merely makes a pivotal motion and the outer blade passes over the skin by such a pivotal or swinging motion of the shaving head; thus, shaving that conforms to one's facial configuration is not well executed. More specifically, when it is intended to move the outer blade along an uneven facial configuration, it is necessary to move the main body of the shaver to and away from the shaving target point on the face. In addition, since the shaving head can make pivot motions, if the shaver is moved with the outer blade being pressed strongly against the skin, the shaving head pivots in the opposite direction from the direction the shaver is moved on the face. Consequently, the deep cutting of whiskers that is done by stretching the skin while moving the shaver finely back and forth at the target point on the face is not available.